Date: October 16, 2023
Time: 13:00 local time
Original Language: Arabic
Press Release
The International Commission “Hashd” The world must stop believing false Israeli justifications; the fact is that its military forces are committing the largest genocide known to humanity in Gaza.
Israeli military forces continue their operations in the Gaza Strip for the tenth consecutive day. As of 11:30 AM on October 16, 2023, according to the latest statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the continuous Israeli military attacks have resulted in the deaths of 2,750 civilians, including 870 children, 650 women, 14 paramedics and doctors, 8 journalists, and 6 members of the civil defense. Additionally, 9,700 people have been injured, predominantly children and women. Furthermore, around 1,000 civilians remain either dead or injured under the rubble of their homes, with nearly a million people forcibly displaced. Yesterday, the targeting intensified on hospitals and the homes of citizens, which were destroyed with their residents. The number of completely eradicated families has risen to 57, with over 200 families losing five of their family members. This is in addition to the destruction of tens of thousands of civilian structures, including towers, multi-story residential buildings, houses, schools, mosques, universities, government and private institutions, commercial shops, and civil and economic infrastructure, causing significant material damage to the infrastructure. All of this was accomplished using thousands of tons of internationally prohibited explosives and weapons. This has resulted in an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, with the potential for continued destruction and genocide of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, due to the electricity and water shortages. This is aside from the threat to 22 hospitals that have refused evacuation due to the overcrowding of wounded and displaced individuals.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd) condemns the continued failure of the international community and international organizations to protect civilians and civilian structures. They also criticize the inability to open a humanitarian corridor for evacuating the wounded and ensuring the delivery of medical supplies to guarantee the continued operation of hospitals, as well as providing humanitarian aid to the displaced population and fuel shipments to ensure a minimal supply of water and power for the population. Hushd reiterates the Palestinian people’s right to resist the occupier by all available means and holds the Israeli occupying forces and the government of the United States fully responsible for the lives of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories. It affirms that the Israeli occupying forces have turned civilians and civilian structures into military targets and imposed unprecedented collective punishments in a gross violation of all rules of international humanitarian law, the Hague Conventions, and Geneva Conventions.
Heshd records and demands the following:
- Heshd calls on the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court to step out of the silence that makes the court complicit in the commission of war crimes by deliberately delaying the pursuit of Israeli war criminals.
- Heshd urges the United Nations Security Council and the High Contracting Parties to the Four Geneva Conventions to take individual and collective international action to compel the Israeli occupation to cease its genocidal war against Gaza and its residents.
- Heshdcalls on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to fulfill its role and continue providing relief services to the civilians who have taken shelter in its schools in Gaza, without abandoning them.
- Heshd calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions and the world to fulfill their ethical and legal obligations to cease targeting civilians, women, children, journalists, medical teams, and civil defense personnel. It also urges them to expedite the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate the wounded and deliver medical supplies and humanitarian aid, as well as the necessary fuel to operate power stations, hospital generators, ambulances, and civil defense vehicles.
- Heshd calls upon the international solidarity movement with the Palestinian people, all Arab, regional, and international organizations, to take action on all legal, political, diplomatic, human rights, and popular fronts to ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians, especially in the Gaza Strip.
End
The International Commission to Support Palestinians Rights (Hashd)
